My husband, Peter, and I had our 26th wedding anniversary this past week…and in addition to those 26 years, we lived together for 10 years before we got married…wow….36 years….that is A LOT of years!!!..

A few days before our anniversary, Peter arrived home from Costco with a wonderful Garden Gnome that was holding a lantern…really cute.

Well, I like the idea of lanterns…the lantern being a bit like a purpose in my life, whatever it might be. And it occurred to me that one of Peter’s “lanterns” is kindness to others…he is a remarkably kind and generous person.

That got me to thinking about how Peter has gotten up early, almost every day, for all of those years…every single day…and made a fresh pot of coffee for us…STRONG Peet’s coffee. I actually took out the calculator and figured out that he has made more than 10,000 pots of coffee for us….now that is a lot of coffee, but even more important..that is A LOT of kindness.

So…I took the garden gnome and 2 special coffee cups out to the front yard and started photographing that little gnome…from one side of the front yard to another. And here he is….

10,000 Cups of Kindness…my card of appreciation to Peter.

And a good reminder to me that kindness and generosity provide so much richness to the lives of others.